Oct., igi2 Bulletin oj the Brooklyn Entomological Society 19 



Proceedings of The Brooklyn Entomological Society. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 

 was held on October lo, 1912, at 55 Stuyvesant Ave., with nineteen members 

 and three visitors present. F. Conrad Pasch, 1224 75th St., Brooklyn, and 

 H. H. Brehme, 73 13th Ave., Newark, were elected to membership. 



Dr. D. S. Martin, of the Charleston, S. C, museum exhibited his collec- 

 tion of insects embalmed in copal. The copal is a fossilized gum, the exuda- 

 tion of a deciduous tree, Tricholobiiim mozamhicense, which still survives, 

 although the copal of commerce dates from the Quaternary or post-Tertiary 

 age. The New Zealand product has not been found to contain insects. That 

 from Brazil has shown only termites. The Zanzibar product is mined several 

 miles inland in sand which was formerly of the seashore, and this locality 

 yielded all the specimens in the collection exhibited. All orders were repre- 

 sented, the two commonest species being a scolytid beetle and a small bee. 

 A hundred bees were imbedded in a piece of copal less than two inches long. 

 The specimens of beetles were especially fine, their hard bodies having pre- 

 vented distortion. Through the polished gum all the anatomical structures 

 could be made out in numerous instances distinctly enough for description 

 as species. Notable were a Trichodes, two elaters and a scarabaeid. There 

 was one fine reduviid, and a large number of jassids and other small Hemiptera. 

 Small Diptera and Hymenoptera were numerous. Two Lepidoptera only 

 were in the collection; one moth had a wing spread of nearly lyi inches. 



A number of insects in amber were also shown, amber being a similar 

 gum, but coming from a coniferous tree of the earh' Tertiary or Oligocene 

 period. 



A member of the Society described the process of embalming now going 

 on in pine gum. Pine trunks are gashed with an axe during the winter. In 

 early spring the sap exudes freely and slowly hardens. Insects get their feet 

 caught in the sticky gum and soon perish and are buried by the later exuda- 

 tions. 



Exhibition of specimens from the summer's collections completed the 

 session. A notable fly shown by Mr. Marshall was Volucella obesa, a Southern 

 species caught at Sheepshead Bay. Mr. Schaeffer exhibited a box of beetles, 

 adding to the list of Long Island records. Lebia pleuritica, generally very rare, 

 was taken copiously by beating oak at Central Park. Metachroma pallidum, 

 laterale and IcEvicolle were taken together in numbers, varying from pale straw 

 color to almost black and tending to show that the three are only two good 

 species. Bythinus bithinoides is a Long Island record. Yaphank yielded 

 Brachyacantha albifrons^, the western form of ursina. Ditoma pinicola was 

 beaten freely from oak. Pityobius anguinus, a Northern elater, Strategus 

 antceus, Lachnosterna knochii and Trichius texanus, Southern forms, were re- 

 corded from Long Island. Zabrotes subnitens and Anthonomus scutellaris 

 were beaten from Pruniis marihma. Cryptorhynchus fuscatus was also 

 recorded. Elytroleptus floridanus can no longer be considered remarkably rare 

 on the island. 



